Two State Agents Testify Against Doctor In Drug Case

A New Jersey doctor testified yesterday that colleagues have to be aware of drug-seeking patients trying to dupe them and should look for "red flags" that signal such a patient.

Dr. Joseph P. Hutsko, an Allentown osteopath, did not follow proper procedures before giving diet pills to a state bureau of narcotics investigator and an agent in the attorney general's office Medicaid fraud unit, both acting as patients, Dr. William Vilensky of Cherry Hill, N.J., said.

"Sir, I have people coming in for drugs every day," he told Hutsko's attorney, Wallace Worth.

Vilensky was one of two doctors who testified in Hutsko's Lehigh County trial on charges of dispensing drugs improperly, dispensing drugs in improperly labeled containers and Medicaid fraud.

The diet pills the agents received are controlled substances by law because of their potential for addiction and dependency.

The Medicaid fraud agent testified before Judge James Knoll Gardner that Hutsko sold him diet pills during visits and filled out medical assistance forms for compensation for the visits.

He said Hutsko wrote on the forms that he diagnosed the patient as having colds and respiratory ailments.

Deputy Attorney General Kendra Heckert told the jury in her opening statement that visits for weight loss and cosmetic surgery, for example, are not compensable under Medicaid.

The agent, who was wearing a transmitter during one of the visits, testified that Hutsko gave him pills for his fictitious wife who he said was interested in losing weight.

Part of the tape was played for the jury, but the agent testified about the rest of the conversation because the tape was inaudible.

The state Bureau of Narcotics agent testified she went to see Hutsko, 50, of Coopersburg in his Allentown office six times.

She said she received prescriptions for diet pills and bought diet pills from Hutsko.

The agent said she weighed 114 pounds when she first went to Hutsko and weighed 108 pounds on the last visit.

She told Hutsko she had been taking Desoxyn, a drug with a higher potential for dependency than phentermine, the drug Hutsko sold her.

Vilensky testified if he had been Hutsko he would have questioned why a 5- foot-4 woman who weighed 114 pounds wanted to lose weight.

He said Hutsko should have questioned whether the woman was even taking the pills because she did not have any adverse effects to them, such as varied blood pressure and heart rate.

"You mean he shouldn't have believed his patient?" Worth asked.

"There are certain signs in this epidemic of drug abuse that people take drugs for nonmedical reasons, and, unfortunately, there are physicians that prescribe them for drug-seeking patients," Vilensky said.

He said Hutsko should have suspected that maybe the woman wasn't taking the pills herself but was giving them to someone else.

In his cross-examination, Worth stressed that Hutsko told the agent she didn't look like she needed to lose weight and she insisted she wanted to lose weight.

"A doctor should not be forced into giving medicine," Vilensky said, even if the patient "badgers" him.

The doctor said he is being paid by the state to testify and to read the reports of the investigators but does not keep the money for himself, instead giving it to the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey.

"With all the doctors in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania has to pay New Jersey to have someone come in and testify?" Worth asked.

Dr. Brooks Betts of Easton testified he gives his patients extensive physical examinations and tries to elicit a detailed medical history from them that includes allergic reactions to certain chemicals and what drugs they took in the past.

The agents who were given diet pills by Hutsko said checking their blood pressure and heart rate was the extent of the exams.

The male agent, who said he's allergic to many medications and has been in hospitals several times for treatment, said Hutsko did not ask about past reactions to drugs.

Betts said his "complete evaluation" of a patient entails giving a rectal exam.

"Do you need that for a weight reduction program?" Worth asked.

"I think you need that for a total management of the patient," Betts said.